korn - issues

i remember how excited i was in december 1999. it was christmas and i knew i would get the new korn cd 'issues' as a gift because it was on top of my wish list. i was thirteen back then and without the financial possibilities of today it was something real special to get a hold on original cd's. my uncle gave it to me and after the gifts were handed out and all the relatives went home, i jammed the compact disc into my discman and played it for the first time.

back then i was split over 'issues'. there were a bunch of great songs on it but also some songs that felt like fillers. i played the shit out of that album but back then it couldn't really live up to 'follow the leader' to me. now with sixteen years of further musical imprinting it still can't, because 'follow the leader' took deeper emotional roots within me - but i appreciate it more than in the past. 'issues' shows korn at the peak of their song-writing skills.

so many great songs on it. the intro 'dead' sends shivers down my spine, 'wake up' seems like the most underrated korn pearl of all to me, 'dirty' with its dissonant song structures is unbelievably strong and the best korn song of all time is on this album - 'somebody someone' is such a raw and heavy piece of music, it makes me want to jump around uncontrollably. on top those five lovely interludes, including the intro, make clear that this record is worked out right down to the last detail.

still some weaker songs on the album. stuff like 'no way' or 'hey daddy' but if i listen to all korn records up to the split, which is the departure of head to me, and all for the first time now, i would pick 'issues' for the best. i picked up this record at saturn store in hamburg, the same day i had my elder shopping spree. music on vinyl re-issues are pretty pricey and the price tag on this one wasn't low by any means, but still a bit cheaper than internet options and so it was mine. lovely coloured double vinyl with disc one on orange marble and disc two on yellow marble. 1500 copies made. music on vinyl. 2015. 

red sparowes - every red heart shines toward the red sun

shortly after i got myself the first red sparowes record 'at the soundless dawn', i ordered this baby too. it is the band's second full length called 'every red heart shines toward the red sun'. it's kind of funny that an instrumental band can come up with a lyrical concept for a record. but this is just what red sparowes did here. the concept is carried by the song titles.

and not only this, of course the songs on their own carry a specific mood matching the lengthy song titles. the concept tells the story of a campaign which was part of 'the great leap forward' in china of the late fifties and early sixties of the bygone century. it was called 'the four pests campaign' and meant the mass killing of four animal 'parasites'. the rat, the fly, the mosquito and the above all the sparrow.

it was widely believed that these animals would feed on a considerable portion of the people's harvest and therefore had to be exterminated. in order to specifically eliminate sparrows peasants were encouraged to make noise by banging pots and the like, to scare the birds into continuing flight which would eventually kill them from exhaustion. the mass killing caused the locust to multiply uncontrollably and caused, along with other programs without foresight, a great famine between 1959 and 1962 with 45 million victims.

it was very interesting to listen to the music, reading the song titles and then informing myself about this chinese campaign and its horrible consequences. a very sophistically concept worked out by the band. more of this! the musical part however, is a darker approach compared to the first record. quite natural considering its grim topic. check it out here. the presentation is great too! lovely gatefold with nice art work and matching vinyl colour. third pressing with 500 copies on 'red sun' vinyl. robotic empire. 2006

elder - spires burn / release

so this release right here was my last elder catch at burnout record store. in 2012 they released a two song e.p. simply named after the containing two songs 'spires burn / release'. it was the first record i threw on the turntable in the store to check its content. when i dropped the needle on it i was very surprised at what hit my ears.

it sounded strangely unfamiliar to the stuff i heard from 'lore' and 'dead roots stirring' on the internet. the voice was quirky and the riffs played at an odd pace. after five minutes of listening and wondering i recognised that the little '45rpm' lamp was gleaming while the record is played at 33rpm. oh man, so i lifted the needle, pushed the 33rpm button and started all over again.

now everything was in apple-pie order again. elder sounded just the way i remembered. those two songs are well packed with psychadelic melodies and stoner metal riffs at their best. check those two crackers at the elder bandcamp page. the e.p. was released by armageddon shop which is really a physical store, or better two stores - one in providence and the other in boston. this is the 2014 re-press on opaque crimson red. armageddon shop. 2012.

elder - dead roots stirring

whoa! didn't see that coming. their first, self-titled album was good, sure but it really didn't herald what 'dead roots stirring' was holding. but from the beginning. as you could read in the preceding post i found this record at burnout record store, or rather i overlooked it. at first sight i believed it to be another copy of the self-titled one.

only when i considered what records i should buy among the ones i picked for quick listenings, i realised that there was a copy of 'dead roots stirring' waiting for me. suddenly i was hopping around like a little child bursting with excitement. as i actually already forgot about the re-press it was pretty cool to have a copy in hands now.

i spared me the quick listen and took all the three elder records burnout had to offer. the music of 'dead roots...' is simply awesome. all five songs are absolute crackers. elder evolved from their solid stoner metal of the first record into a dreamy and melodic stoner monster which can't be denied. if i should compare them to other bands, i'd say they sound like the perfect mixture of high on fire's stoner urge and baroness' feeling for melodics.

the band hails from boston/providence and is a three-piece. they say about themselves that since this record the band tries to take the legacy of sleep and black sabbath and arrange their own unique wall of sound around this basis. with their lengthy epics they do just that. check out the whole album via this tube link and then go get a copy here.

the album was released through meteor city records and the vinyl rights were liscensed to headspin from the netherlands. this is the second re-press, so three pressings in total. the gatefold sleeve is graced with beautiful artwork. those smooth lines and warm colours. on top the lovely vinyl colour match. 200 copies on wine red with black marble vinyl. headspin records. 2011/2015.

elder - s/t

i didn't hear much about elder in the past. even though i am on quite a doom/stoner kick as of lately and i definitely hear some high on fire references here, it seems the band is widely overlooked. but maybe that is just my perception. i am not quite sure anymore if that was the way i stumbled upon elder first but i have read an review for the new record 'lore' in the fuze magazine.

the fuze magazine is a fine german hardcore and metal fanzine which i get with orders or can take for free at burnout record store or other stores. it features a lot of interesting interviews and helpful reviews, as they don't praise every new album in principle. they do real statements and i appreciate this. the review to 'lore' however was pretty positive and so i checked them.

i listened to some stuff of said new album and some tunes of 'dead roots stirring' and i really liked what i heard. so i checked the net for physical copies. i came across a dutch label called headspin records that recently re-pressed the first two elder records. just in time for the new album 'lore'. business sense they call that and i am right there to open my wallet.

when i wanted to order the records, headspin didn't have them in stock yet. as i couldn't find any information as to when they would be available, i forgot about it. just too many other pre-orders going on these days. when my girlfriend and me were killing time in hamburg two weeks ago, of course i was visiting burnout record store and couldn't overlook a bulging elder section. except of 'lore' and the roadburn live album, which i don't want anyway, they had all elder vinyl releases in stock.

the first i feature here is the self titled debut from 2008. maybe this album will grow on me over time but for now it's essential to understand elder's background but not for the music on its own. it's not bad by far, great stoner metal but it lacks those unbelievable catchy hooks of later work and therefore misses a bit of idividuality. still a damn solid debut. the re-press looks way more red than mixed with gold. the streaks in the third picture are actually the gold marble. beautiful artwork. 200 copies made. headspin records. 2015.

integrity - suicide black snake

this was actually my first integrity record. i mean, not the first i listened to but the first one i went out and actually bought a physical copy of. why? i don't really know. i am aware of the massive impact this cleveland band have had and still has on hardcore but it was never like i needed to own their music. that little spark that would lit my interest just wasn't there.

that one day in november 2013 - you might recognise that this record is one from my backlog - when i did one of my countless visits at burnout record store i simply couldn't overlook the well sorted integrity section. i pulled 'suicide black snake' from the racks, the at the time newly released album. i read a lot of good stuff about it, i liked the cover art and so i thought checking it out could do no harm.

on the contrary actually because i found myself really enjoying it. after listening to the opener 'suicide black snake' and 'i know where everyone lives' there was not the faintest shadow of a doubt that i would get this cracker. again it seems that i have my very own snail pace for discovering heavy hitters for myself in today's hardcore and metal scene. converge, mastodon, high on fire and now integrity. well, who cares anyway!

the whole album is great. i fell in love with their gritty metal influenced hardcore-punk and their occult lyrics. pretty unique mixture for a hardcore band. especially for 'suicide black snake' i really dig the bluesy parts that found their way into integrity's sound. a prime example for that sound is 'there ain't no living in life'. my personal favourite of the album.

the presentation by a389 records is awesome and does fully justice to its musical content. the record comes in a gatefold sleeve with lovely artwork and the well known integrity watermark prints. on the cover as well as on the inner gatefold. black dust sleeve and a massive poster are just the icing on the cake. the vinyl itself comes on a nice clear with multi-colour splatter version.

my copy is from the first press and is out of 550 copies. checking discogs for pressing information i saw that 'suicide black snake' was pressed on a shit load of colours. boy, what a pain in the ass for an die hard integ collector. anyway, this album was the little spark that lit my interest. expect some more integrity stuff in the future. a389 records. 2013.

thy art is murder - holy war

i like me some tech death massacre from time to time. mostly bands of that modern wave of technical death metal. stuff like whitechapel or misery index. considering my affinity for that type of music, i was aware of that band called thy art is murder. i did hear some stuff of their 2012 album 'hate' but it didn't really grab me and so i never set out to get a physical copy.

when nuclear blast announced the new record 'holy war' earlier on this year i was curious as to what the new stuff might sound like. it was one of the occasional checks i do for alot of different bands with new or re-pressed records, simply out of the paranoia i could miss a great band/album. i assume a lot of collectors can relate. i listened to 'light bearer' on youtube.

boy, what i heard was pretty everything i like about this style of metal. fast, heavy and so angry. good shit! so i decided to pre-order that baby from nuclear blast europe. fortunately they had some copies of the u.s. version in stock and i thankfully took one. now with the whole record in front of me, it can live up to everything 'light bearer' promised. dark and furious stuff that reminds me of a more to-the-point version of job for cowboy.

while their u.s. friends fail to keep the listener entranced in a long term manner, these australian deathers deliver pure dynamite. the record also reminds me of another great australian tech death album called 'avarice of man' by now defunct the red shore. does anyone remember that record? it was a cracker from start to finish and so is 'holy war'.

'holy war' was pressed on black/pink merge and black/red merge for australia and on my blue/white merge for the u.s. market. the u.s. version was pressed by czech pressing plant xvinylx.com. they recently did great colour configurations for a389 (100 demons' 'in the eyes of the lord' re-press) and burning world rec. (bongripper's 'hate ashbury'). this one right here looks stunning as well. hope to get more colour vinyl of them in the future. nb europe comes up with a silver and a blue version which will be released in september. so don't be late! nuclear blast. 2015.  

bongripper - miserable

after i was totally blown away by bongripper's 2008 release 'hate ashbury', i wanted more of their stuff. when i scoured the market for bongripper vinyl i was a little bummed to find that prices are pretty high. when i found out that vinyl releases always have been pretty limited - in the two hundred copies range - plus the very good underground reputation of the band, those prices weren't too surprising at all anymore.

the band's big cartel shop was a dead end as all their vinyl copies of different albums were gone, ebay had nothing to offer too and so i checked discogs again with better luck. a german seller had a reasonable priced second press copy of bongripper's latest record 'miserable' available. still being on that 'hate ashbury' high i ordered straight away, without listening to any song before.

when the postman delivered the record safe and sound and i dropped the needle on 'miserable' it wasn't an instant hit like 'hate ashbury'. 'miserable' is a grower and i needed something like five or six whole spins before its greatness manifested in my auditory passages. the album has so much to offer with its slow heaviness and omious melodies. in my humble opinion it won't top '... ashbury' but it's such a good doom record anyway.

as mentioned before my copy is part of the second pressing consisting of 1000 copies in total. 500 on good ol' black vinyl and another 500 on this grey marbled vinyl. 180gr vinyl, black dust sleeves and a nice artworked gatefold sleeve make this sucker a top notch release. the art looks like some sinister lovecraft, cthulhu mysticism brought to cardboard. again bongripper released this album on their own label. all very d.i.y. great barrier records. 2014.

guilty - demo 7"

boy, summer is showing its relentless face in northern germany right now. thirty-five degrees celcius the day and the temperature doesn't drop under twenty degrees the night. tiny movements are exhausting and i really need to go to the beach and throw my tortured body in the sea. while at work these days i sometimes wish i was at the northernmost place of sweden with comfortable fifteen degrees celcius. what a convenient transition to the band of today's topic. guilty from sweden.

in 2011 this band gave us their second release in the form of a self titled 7" via different labels worldwide. six feet under fom the states, carry the weight from the uk and green menace from sweden. it was featured on different vinyl blogs, you all love and regulary visit. i put up a copy of the sfu records pressing and back then i saved their first demo on my mental want list. it took me two years to obtain this record.

a discogs offering came my way and was too good to ignore it. the musical part on this plastic platter is pretty good. i think it's a bit nicer than the self-titled effort. while i was looking for some tunes to link it to this post, i came across the information that the band broke up last year. a shame that is. here is the link to their bandcamp page with the opportunity to download the demo for free. 250 copies on my opague orange vinyl and another 250 on black. green menace records. 2010.

baroness - first & second

in the course of the last half a year or so baroness really has become one of the heavy hitters in my personal play list. 'the red album' and 'blue record' made me love their weird and catchy incarnation of progressive rock music. therefore i am always on the hunt for more baroness vinyl. while i still keep falling short on getting a coloured vinyl copy of 'yellow and green', i was quite successful obtaining a copy of the compilation of their first two e.p.'s.

those two e.p.'s were aptly entitled 'first' and 'second' and have been originally put out as seperate releases by hyperrealist records. i suppose the band has some connection to the label because they are coming from the same city - savannah, georgia - and black tusk, also with releases on hyperrealist, is one of the bands john dyer baizley does almost every artwork for.

anyway, following the 2004 release of 'first' and the 2005 release of 'second', said hyperrealist records reissued them as one release on vinyl in 2008. it was too expensive for me to hunt the single versions and so i was really happy to grab this real nice brown marble record from an ebay seller from germany. the orange marble of the same pressing, the third to be exact, would have been cooler but i am more than ok with it.

if you want to witness a more raw and heavy version of the band's trademark sound this compilation is your way to go. it reminds me of early mastodon stuff and i really like it for what it is - an early stage in the bands career. all in all i like their full length's better but this is still essential stuff and a must-have for any baroness sympathiser. 750 copies on brown marble with foil print on the cover. hyperrealist records. 2008.